Cars damaged by Israeli airstrikes that targeted the village of Adsheet earlier today, killing a Hezbollah member and wounding others. (Credit: Photo sent by residents to L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — In a significant escalation, Israel carried out a series of simultaneous and deadly airstrikes across southern Lebanon Wednesday afternoon, some reaching targets within 40 kilometers from the Lebanese-Israeli borders.
The attacks killed three civilians and a Hezbollah fighter and were carried out in retaliation for a strike that killed one Israeli soldier at a military based in the village of Safed, in northern Israel. The Safed strike was launched from southern Lebanon on Wednesday morning and was attributed in Israeli media to Hezbollah, but no one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
At around 2 p.m. on Wednesday, the Israeli military said that its fighter jets "began a series of extensive strikes in Lebanon," raising fears of a war between the two countries. Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in cross-border fighting since Oct. 8, the day after the start of the Hamas-Israel war.
At the time of publication, Hezbollah had not made any official announcements about, nor claimed responsibility for, any attacks on Israel — a rare occurrence.
The Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon killed a 13-years-old body, a two-year-old baby, and their stepmother in the village of Souaneh, Bint Jbeil district, our correspondent in the South reported, citing a source working with the rescue teams and a family member.
Their bodies were trapped until members of the Amal-affiliated al-Risala Scout Association managed to clear the rubble and pull them out from beneath the collapsed building.
These three deaths bring the total number of civilians killed in Lebanon since fighting began on Oct. 8 to 30, not including three journalists who were also killed while reporting on the situation in the South.
The strikes also killed Hezbollah member Hassan Najem and wounded several others in the village of Adsheet, Nabatieh district.
Other areas were also subjected to Israeli strikes, but there were no reports of casualties. These include the Bassalia and Sennieh region, in the Jezzine district, the Iqlim al-Tuffah region, and the village of Shehabieh, east of the largest city in the south, Sour.
Lebanese caretaker minister of agriculture Abbas al-Hajj Hassan — with close ties to the Amal Movement — paid tribute to the 13-year-old boy killed in the Israeli strike that targeted Souaneh.
In a post published on X, Hassan wrote: "A child from the cubs of the [Amal-affiliated] al-Rissala Scout [Association], was killed by the Israeli enemy in a criminal and barbaric way and in cold blood." The teenager was identified as Hussein Mohsen.
Later, Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee announced on X that the army had completed a wave of extensive airstrikes in Lebanon, including "targets associated with Hezbollah's Radwan force, military buildings, combat operations rooms and terrorist infrastructure in several areas."
According to our count, 195 Hezbollah members have been killed in Lebanon and Syria since the start of cross-border fighting with Israel on Oct. 8.
The Chairman of Hezbollah's Executive Council, Hashem Safieddine, declared that the Israeli airstrikes "will not go unanswered."
"There will certainly be an appropriate response, of the required level," he said, in a statement included in the press release issued by Hezbollah — the first official reaction from the party since the afternoon's flare-up.
"Some people imagine that they can achieve goals that they failed to achieve, either in 2006, or between 2006 and 2023 ... But once again they are mistaken," Safieddine says, adding that "the enemy will not achieve any of its objectives as long as the Resistance is present, strong and ready, on all fronts."